Another backroad expierence and Muse news

My husband had to literally pull me out of my chair Saturday.  All week long I stayed faithfully in my office, glued to the chair and to the computer.  Muse Online Writer's Conference was coming to a close.  I had stepped out of a pitch session with Morrigan Books, an online publisher.  My head reeling and hands shaking when Mark Deniz, publisher of MB told me to send in the first five chapters of Savant, my Paranormal Thriller.

Bless my dear husband!  He coaxed me with promises of a juicy hamburger and a nice drive to check out fall scenery.  I complied, (well the stomach did).  I had so many things to do, homework, chat sessions, and editing requested chapters.  Still, it was the first pretty day in two weeks.  I neeeded to unclog the brain and get out of the house. So I did.

We took a backroad, cooler filled with beer and found some great fall foilage.  We would stop, get out, feel the crisp air on our faces, and listen to the wind skipping across the tree tops, sending cascades of leaves on us.  We started to head home, I needed to get back, the day was waning, clouds were beginning to sock back in and our pets needed food.  But we decided to check out one more road.  There's always that one more road thing.  We took pictures and followed Osage Creek until we came to a fork in the road.  I opted for the northern route.  We had our bearings and knew home was north of us, so off we go.

We drove on.  I wished we had our truck, however, since we traded it off for a gas effecient vehicle, we made do.  Recent rains caused some major erosion on the road we were on.  The Sonata is not built for four-wheeling, and several times we scraped the under carriage.  I sucked in a lot of spit going down that road.  We drove past a place and noticed a man sitting in his truck, we wave and go on.  I tell my husband as we try to straddle the huge ruts that guy is probably laughing his ass off at us "city slickers".  I wanted our truck.  We came to a point where it is no longer possible to travel the road in our car, so we begin to back up as there is no other choice.  After hissing at each other about not dropping off into a huge gully on my side of the road, we make it to the spot we had seen the man in his truck.  The man is out of his truck.  I think he knew we'd be back soon. 

My husband gets out and with much glee notices the man has a beer in his hand, so they begin to talk.  We stayed about fifteen minutes.  Alan (hubby) offers the gentleman a shot from his pint of Tequilla.  This fellow drinks about a quarter of the liquid and damn near puked.   His faced turned bright red, his eyes watered and he continued to choke for ten of the fifteen minutes. I asked if he was okay to which he replied, "No, I'm not okay."  I feared he may throw up or collapse, but he remained on his feet and kept his gorge down.
It is getting darker and the wind is colder.  We bade our goodbyes and went on, making it home without dragging the oil pan off or busting an axel.  I fed my pets, attended class, and in bed by 9:30pm.  I have this thing about backroading or taking a road unkown, but despite some of the situations we find ourselves in we manage to have a great time and meet some interesting people.

I want to make mention our alcohol consumption was minimal during this time until we got home.  Mine stayed that way, the hubby's? Take a guess.

What happened to Summer?

Summer eveming sky

I don't know what happened to our usual hot, muggy summer days and nights, but it's fall around here!

The past few weeks have been unseasonably cool, which is nice for me.  I like hot summer nights, but that humidity is one nasty mutha!  If it would only melt fat....

In addition to the weird weather, the past few months sped past me!  It's been awhile, since May that I posted anything on this blog, May!  What have I been doing?  Working, working, working.  Well, not all the time, but considerably more than what I was used to with the previous job.  Special tests and audits, plus a non-stop work schedule during the course of the day makes time fly.  While we rejoice when it's time to go home, in the same breath I wish for another hour in order to get the things done that need to be completed.  This lab job works my brain!  While there is nothing wrong with that, speed is of the esscence, you know that saying, "haste makes waste"?  It is the absolute truth folks.  I find that if I take my time to do things correctly, I fall behind schedule, so I speed up.  This of course leads to mistakes, and that pisses me off.  I tell myself I will eventually get the hang of things, that I am still learing this.  I wished I had it all learned and able to keep up with my lab partner.  She's done this job for twenty-five plus years and flies through it with her eyes closed!  She assures me I am doing a great job.  She hasn't yelled at me yet, and I know there were a few times she probably wanted to.  If I were her I would have.  Although this is no excuse, but there are many distractions, many detours taken, and once again, especially with the computer work, I have fallen far behind.  It doesn't take but a couple of minutes for that to happen and my fingers simply do not fly that fast!

I'm getting the hang of it though.  I love being a lab rat and it will take time, I just have to be patient and not let frustration set in.

When I am not working, I have made special effort to finish my novel Savant, it's getting close!  I hope to have it finished before October, before the annual writer's conference.  I let a co-worker read some of it, (written in long hand, I take a notebook with me to work and use my lunch break to write) and she liked it.  I told her thaat was crap writing, stuff off the top of my head and to only take in the feeling of the scene.  It creeped her out and she wants to read more.  This lady reads so much, her locker is stuffed with books, she also reads in the genre I write in, so this gives me encouragement. 

There is another co-worker who has decided he wants to write a book.  Congratulations! I tell him. Let's hear the idea.  I feel a tingling on the back of my neck, I have a story idea that could work with his and so I decided to work with the kid.  I tell him give me something in writing, let's see what you got. 

Sigh

I give him some suggestions and tell him to think hard about what he wants from this.  He will be the one to do most of the writing on the first of the trilogy.  Yes, a trilogy.  The idea is terrific and I hope he is serious.  If not, I may have to run with it myself.

I look forward to Autumn, wood smoke,chili,Halloween, and frosty mornings (which means remembering to warm the car up first).   

It's Early Sunday Morning

I made it through the first week at my "new" job working in the Micro Lab. I put the quotes around new because I worked there before, but as a back-up tech. That was nine years ago as far as working the day shift. Many things changed since I left. Where there used to be three technicians during the day and one during the evening shift, is now two daytime technicians and a part-time evening technician.

Monday morning I walked in, greeted by familiar faces. It almost felt like coming home. In a way I guess because I worked in the quality assurance department for seventeen years before taking the waste water treatment job. The people who work in Q.A. for the most part are still there. There are a few familiar faces throughout the plant, but there are so many new ones. That's what happens when you fade into a out of the way job. I like it when someone asks me how long I've worked for the company and I tell them twenty-three years while watching the expression on their faces!

The first thing for me to master is plating techniques. This consists of cutting samples, mixing them in a solution, taking a certain amount and carefully putting it onto what is called a plate. Back in the day, most of their tests were conducted using Petri dishes, now there is a new technology that allows a special type of media on special paper to grow the cultures needed. This is called Petri film. The film saves time, but can slip around so you have to be careful!

The first week has passed and my technique is improving, thus increasing my speed. Not only do I have to get all of the samples "plated", I have to make up several types of broths used for the samples, everyday get certain samples shipped to our corporate lab. If there is downtime (very little of that) we stock up supplies for the lab or clean it. It may not sound like a lot of work, but it is. The day goes quick and before I know it, it is time to go home.

Now if I can only keep my scissors sharpened and concentrate on the task at hand, I'll have that part of the job down.

There is more to the story though. Computer work, paper work and other various things are done by the second technician. Once I learn how to do that part, my lab partner and I will alternate the tasks each day.

This world is the complete opposite from water treatment. The main thing is little or no walking, although there is a lot of standing. So far, this doesn't seem to bother the knee. No stair climbing or straddling water lines involved with lab work. It's clean, not that the treatment plant was messy, but it didn't take much for it to get that way. If something breaks down, I'm not scratching my head trying to figure out what happened or scrambling to make sure sludge and water don't flood me out.

I like the lab job. As for water treatment, it is a fascinating occupation, and should I ever have to resort back to it, at least I'll have an idea of what to expect. Right now though, I believe it's a safe bet I probably won't go back because of my knees and feet. There are places that do have operators who monitor computers all day, so that's something I can consider should I have to.

I will miss the people I worked with. There are a couple of them, and they know who they are, that had they not encouraged me and trained me, chances are I would have quit that job long ago. The first supervisor I had at water treatment had faith in me, yet, I needed to prove to not only myself, but to these guys I could do it, and I did. The current supervisor helped me out many times, especially when I thought I couldn't take it anymore. He was gracious enough and his selfless actions (like during the ice storm in January; providing a ride to and from work, cigarettes, and general orneriness) are what makes him a good supervisor. He was genuinely interested in Alan's music and even attended a gig once.

Long live the water wars!

I thought I would share a little bit of one of our days out. Enjoy!

A Birthday Party for Two

This past Sunday my husband and I spent the day and evening in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It's not a large town, but it is rich in artistic diversity and culture. Most of the homes sit precariously on edges of hillsides and supported on stilts. The town is old, dating back into the eighteen hundreds and full of history and mystery.


Each year, Alan and I share the same age for two weeks. We decided to celebrate our birthdays together because our work schedules are crazy. When you get our age, it's not that big of a deal anyway, so a two week difference doesn't matter.


At first, I thought we were going out on Saturday night and getting a room with a jaccuzi, but we didn't. I was kind of glad because I had been up since three-thirty that morning and worked until seven that night. All I wanted was a long hot shower and a beer. (They didn't come in that order though.)

We had other options to spend Easter Sunday, dinner at his folks' or dinner at my neice's. The weather was cold, rainy and windy with no signs of a let up. Alan told his mother we wouldn't be coming and I had no idea what time my family was doing theirs. By four Sunday afternoon we left the house to go eat.


We stopped at Forest Hill Court, a buffet style restaurant that also serves pizza cooked in a stone oven and steaks. We got there just as they were switching to the dinner menu. The food was good. I just wish my steak was a little bigger, 6 ounces is not a lot of meat. I loved the beer-battered shrimp, four of them, just enough to satify my seafood pallet. The thing I like the best is their spinach dip served with herb seasoned flat bread. It wasn't ready when we ordered it and the waitress thought we decided to pass it by. After the confusion was put into perspective we left with fresh made spinach dip and flat bread to take home and enjoy later.


If you've read my earlier blog posts, you know my husband is a drummer. His band, Livewyre (I have a video of them in an earlier post, May or June'08). He joined these guys last year, but due to personal and work schedules, the band basically spilt up. Jim, the lead guitar/vocals went on to find another group and finished out the dates with them.


Well, after a few months Jim, Eric, and Alan are jamming together again and everybody is happy. They plan to work on original material and do a few gigs here and there, but they want to spend time working on the show itself. Alan wanted to see what clubs might be open. It being a Sunday few were. We stopped at the Lumberyard, a nice club with the coldest beer around and heaping plates of crab legs. Alan and I both wished we would of ate there. He talked to the bar tender and gave her information about Livewyre. We drank a beer and tossed down a shot of Jose Ceurvo before looking for a new place heading west on the outskirts of town called Marquees.

We have a friend who is a songwriter and he goes out there sometimes. This is where we should have ate dinner! They serve what's called "Pacific Rim" cuisine. Turns out the owner used to be the Head Chef at The Cresent Hotel in Eureka Springs. Alan and he worked together at another club, Alan was in the house band and Marc, was the cook.

Before we walked in we could hear piano music, Elton John's material, being played. Alan knew one of them, the piano player, a former member of a popular local band, Kill Gilligan. You can guesss where we spent the rest of the evening. It was a blast, so much fun. I knew I should have snagged up the camera! We sang more Elton John tunes, some Billy Joel, Alan Parsons and even a Jazz tune which was pretty cool too.


The piano was ancient, but in tune. I finally learned something about the piano I have wondered about for years. What the purpose was for the peddles a pianist steps on. Sound variations. Never knew that, now I do.


I always learn a little bit everyday. It's something few appreciate or pick up on. Knowledge is Power, so it's been said. I think it's a good thing, keeps you young in mind and spirit.


I really had a lot of fun and Livwyre may have a gig there in the future. Can't wait to check out the deck in the back! Thanks John and Curtis for letting us hang out and thanks to Marc and his staff for putting up with us! If you ever get a chance to visit Eureka Springs, check out Marquees, tell them Alan and Connie sent ya!

We headed back to the house weaving in and out of fog banks (bet you thought I was going to say off the road) and rain showers back home. Our cats were happy to see us, and demanded food. Still pumped up from the evening, we watched a music DVD, Cinderella and listened to more tunes. I noticed the time on the clock, twelve-thirty, and I had to be up by seven to go to my last physical therapy session! Ahhh, but the sleep was deep and undisturbed. Other than being a little tired, I was good to go.

Alan and I enjoy going out and doing things together. Those times are few and far between anymore. Many factors are involved, work, band practices and money play huge roles, so when we do go out, it's treasured.

This is my last year of the forties and Alan turns fifty. Fifty! I used to think that was sooo old. It sure got here fast! Each year as another birthday rolls by, I think about things done and not done and each year there are things I would have changed. You can't do that though, the only thing you can do is learn and apply to the future.

Before I go, I want to pay tribute to Billy Powell, piano player for Lynard Skynrd who died last week. May you rest in peace and I hope your heaven is full of music!

Tree Frogs and Beer

Two and a half weeks after knee surgery, I am back to work. I tossed and turned during the night concerned about taking on a twelve-hour shift. The following morning, I clocked in and made my appearance at the water treatment plant. My co-workers and boss were happy to see me and I have to admit, I was glad to be back. I took it slow, not wanting to slip on wet areas in the plant and trying to climb the stairs one step at a time. The day went on with little incident, but by the end of it, I was ready to get home and put an ice pack on my knee. I was surprised when I woke up the next morning without hobbling too much down the stairs.
I still have stiffness in the knee, that, my doctor told me will be there always and I will experience pain due to arthritis. There is a bit of numbness, I suppose it will eventually go away. However, there is the other knee. It's not as bad as the other one, but it lets me know when I've overdone it. It just confirms I need to get another job that requires less footwork. I'm working on that.
If you want to check out information about the human body go to http://www.innerbody.com/image/skelfov.html
Last night after work, I came home and decided I would enjoy a nice cold bottle of beer. I knew there were two of them in the fridge and so I open the refrigerator, no cold beers. I reflected on the situation. The idea of relaxing and take in the warm evening was appealing, yet I didn't want to drive to the local liquor store either. It was a quick inner debate answered when I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.
I picked out a six-pack of Michelob Ultra, chilled to perfection. I paid for my purchase and went back home, grateful for the sun setting low enough on the horizion it wasn't blinding me. With great haste I ripped a beer from it's cardboard carrier and took a drink.
Ahhh.
That first sip was great! (Let me say, I am not a sot, but I enjoy a good beer or a glass of wine on occasion.) I sat with my beer on my porch and soaked in the sounds of the neighborhood. The evening still warm, evident by kids shouting at each other as they rode their bikes past the house. Down the street a hopped up truck rapped its exhaust pipes, and several motorcycles could be heard driving into the distance.
I listened to dogs barking and wondered if they really communicated like they did in 101 Dalmatians. (For those of you who didn’t read the book, at twilight, dogs have their own communication system, sending news by barking.)
Then came tree frogs. Initially, their throaty chirps mixed with crickets and birds finding roosting places. As the evening waned, soon it was just the frogs and me. I listened to them and stared at the stars in the sky. The Orion is getting into his summer path and I was happy to see that. (After twenty years of living in the same place, a person gets to know the paths of the seasons such as sunrise and sunsets, you get the idea.)
I think there were only two “talking”. One had a higher pitch than the other one, projecting the note into the evening air. I listened to these two going back and forth for another three beers before I noticed they had slowed down. By the fifth beer, it was time for me to go inside and go to bed.
That was the best sleep I’ve had in a long time and was proud of myself for not having a hangover.
This does not mean I will do this all the time, which, I think makes the experience that much more pleasant. However, the days are getting longer and sitting outside in the evening listening to nature tempts me.

Even though it's March....

I am beyond behind here!

Days have came and went. Christmas, New Year's, an ice storm and knee surgery. I've not visited "A Writer's Wish/Stuff From the Attic" in a long time, so I have a lot of ground to cover!

Christmas came and went, I had to work, but all in all, I tried not to let commercialism hamper the spirits. Let's face it, as long as there is advertising, we might as well figure Christmas will be thrown at us in September. Just remember the reason for the season. The new year came and went in the same fashion, I was at work.

At the end of January, residents in Northwest Arkansas and southern Missouri were slammed with ice and lots of it. At first, it seemed we could get by without too much, but as the day wore into the afternoon, it became apparent we were in trouble. When the power went out, we figured it was short term. When we called in the outage, a recording informed us it would be hours, then it became days.

Limbs snapped like gunshots in war, ice continued to fall. Everywhere around us the sounds of transformers blowing out and trees cracking under the weight of ice had us running to our windows each time. We thought it was unfair we were the only ones on our block not to have electricity. Our neighbors across and up and down the street had power. It was as though they all had every light on in their houses including the porch lights, rubbing it in our noses. A couple of the neighbor kids laughed at our misfortune, that is until a major power line snapped and not only blackened out the entire town, but other small towns up and down the grid. Who was the ones laughing now? As much as I wanted to, I couldn't because those neighbors had huge limbs falling on their house and vehicles.

Going to work was a strange experience. Yes, I had to work. The main plant didn't work, but someone has to be at the treatment plant 24/7/365, it doesn't matter if anyone works or not. I wasn't too excited about sitting in the dark either. Thank God I work day shift! It was dark when I went in at 6:45 in the morning and dark by 5:00pm. Armed with only a flashlight, I tried not to let my imagination get the best of me. Here I was inside that huge dark, quiet building, the only sounds were occasional drips of water and several unidentified thumps coming from dark corners where even a flashlight couldn't penetrate.

And cold! Even with several layers of clothing, insulated coveralls and a heavy coat, those icy fingers found their way in. Fortunately, the weather warmed, melting inches of ice. That was kind of cool, watching huge icicles fall from power lines and crash to the ground. I had to wear a hard-hat, the icicles were large enough to cause damage to a person's skull if one were to fall just right.

By the fifth day, I became tired of no electricity. Heating water for washing and coffee got to be a pain in the ass. I like to camp out, but I was ready for a hot shower. It never fails to humble me when the little things aren't there in my daily comforts.

The surrounding area looks like a tornado came through minus scattered debris. Now that Spring is here, it doesn't look so bad, as life comes forth, flowers, grass, and buds on trees. The twenty-year old willow tree in my back yard is the only major casualty we suffered from the '09 Ice Storm. Against my wanting to keep all of my lovely trees, we had most of them topped or brought down a couple of years ago, good thing too. I fear the results would have been disastrous. What I find unusual is the willow did not give up the ghost. The branches we still need to remove have sprouted new growth.

January spilled into February, on Ground Hog Day I went to see my family doctor. I've had problems with this nearly five years now and it was just getting worse. There were days I barely walked up to the parking lot because in addition to my sore feet, my knee swelled up.

Anyway, I had x-rays taken of the knee and an appointment with an Orthopedic specialist.

So far, I learn from my family doctor I have arthritis. This doesn't surprise me all that much. I have it in my hands, I have family members who have it. The specialist takes more x-rays and says I need an MRI. I never had one of those, but I am concerned. I've seen those commercials on TV about a dye which is injected, will I have this? Thankfully, no, I just had to lay still. I did okay until I could feel my leg wanting to move, but just as that feeling was becoming unbearable, the technician came in and it was over.

My next appointment with the specialist reveals I have a cyst and fluid build up, it reveals more arthritic issues too. An appointment is scheduled for surgery. He says it's a simple operation, remove a bone spur, the cyst, and drain the fluid. I'll feel good as new. Great. Let's get it over with so I can get back to life.

I get the operation done. The doctor tells my husband I have the knee of a seventy-six year old woman. The operation went well, it just took a little longer than expected. I had a huge chunk of cartilage hanging, they took that, shaved a bunch of the cartilage down, I had torn ligaments too. I am blaming that on a stupid stunt I did nearly thrity years ago, and time finally caught up with it. He also tells my husband chances are probable I will need knee replacement surgery in the next couple of years. Great. The only thing good was Vicodin (just kidding). It did help me sleep well. And fast acting! It took less than twenty minutes for me to start nodding out. I have one left and no refills, where's House when you need him? (Again, just kidding)

I am concerned about going back to work in water treatment. There are many obstacles, the floors are slick sometimes, I have to lift heavy bags and many hours of walking, stair climbing and standing. There are days where I have experienced no time for sitting down until the shift was almost over, or maybe for ten minutes, long enough to shove a little food in my head and then off I go. I have many things to think about concerning my job and have decided I need to get out of it. I do not see myself working there too much longer and fear it could have some serious repercussions later on, healthwise, that is. I am working on several things, but it will be sometime before those come to pass. I am excited about these prospects so hopefully something will come out of it.

And so, March is on it's way out, April first is next week. Both mine and my husband's birthday's are coming up. He turns fifty, I, forty-nine. I'll reflect on that later. Happy Spring!